Cranking into Number 1, Boven part II

We ended up going out for Pizza on Friday night. Was great. There was a lot of pizza, 25 of them to be exact. Good evening.

Joey and I getting our butts kicked

Dylan tying in to climb the Beast 8a+

Saturday saw me back at the God No! Wall with Joey. Was a really cool day. Warmed up on Burning Spear and go so flash pumped that I couldn't do the last move! Irritating. But it's all good. Afterward I did two massive links on Rodan. First link found me falling off half way through the second major boulder problem which was an amazing feat for me seeing as I had never caught the dynamic move from the ground. So I added about 8m to my previous highpoint here. Joey took a burn for warmup and did the sequences so he had them solid in mind.

Second burn got me even higher, I managed to make the next clip and fall off moving for the "butter knife crimp." I am really psyched about it. After this, Joey cruised Rodan. He looked really solid until the very last move, which he almost fell off of. But he held it and in 5 attempts the route was done, 8c it remains.

We headed over to Raptophilia (8b) to watch Paul working on it. I also gave it a burn and Brendon Salzer took some good photos (still to come). I then watched Joey waltz right up it, 4th go over two days. Good work! Second ascent. At the end of the day I did Burning Spear (7c) guess that would have been 4th go.

Sunday was a rest day for me. I watched a bunch of people climbing routes all over Wonderland. I saw James crush Stitch It (7c+) and Dylan fight hard on Pit Fighter (8a+). It is good to see everyone cranking so hard, it also made me glad I left my shoes up in the car, no temptations. James and I had a celebratory meal and then went to the lodge and sat there quietly for the rest of the day, I think it was kind of necessary to have a moment of calm during a rest day after so many days of cranking.

MONDAY! The main event for me. I woke up and made breakfast for James and myself and then we headed out to Superbowl. I put the draws on Lotters for James and brushed holds. He almost got it on his warmup, just had to figure out exactly what to do with his feet. I jumped on Strata and made it through the crux effortlessly. I however realized that the foot sequence I had to get to the chains wouldn't work while I was tired so I quickly hung out there and found a new one. Then James crushed Lotters and it was time to play the waiting game. I knew that I wanted to wait 45 minutes. It took James 10 to climb and clean Lotters so I had another 35 minutes to sit around and wait.

I was pretty excited and a little nervous. There was more to this climb than it being a hard 32/8b. I knew that if I sent this one it would propel me into first place on the 8a.nu ranking game for the sport category in South Africa. So when I busted through the crux the second time and got my feet up on those little smears and then into the big slot I knew it was mine for the taking. I guess all I needed to do to get the number 1 spot was work my ass off and send Andrew Pedley off to Brazil. Ha Ha Ha! I can't wait to climb with him again, I miss the psyche that he brought to the crag every day we climbed together. Watching him climb Rodan was an awe-inspiring feat of mental courage. He just would not give up. Again and again he fell at the same spot and yet he persevered and climbed it in the end.

After I did Strata I was so amped that I wanted to do something else as well, so I walked up to Hypertension (8a), tied in and sent it placing draws. It felt great to feel so fit. I hadn't even been on the ground for 5 minutes after sending Strata. I guess you could say that I achieved a bit of a personal goal this weekend, all the hours of hard training and torture paid off. The next trip is about to begin in the morning: 6 weeks in Rocklands. I can't wait. I have some good goals and a bit ticklist in the making. Time will tell if the boulder power is there for me.